Senators concerned about public defender funding

Wednesday

A Senate committee grilled appointees to a board that oversees the state's public defenders Wednesday, asking repeatedly if they will fight to ensure the program is properly funded.

Paul Eugene Beck and Kevin Mark Smith were confirmed to three-year terms on the state's Board of Indigent Defense Services, but not before several senators attempted to impress upon them the board's bleak fiscal position.

Sen. Tim Owens, R-Overland Park, said the state could be "in dire trouble" if it doesn't provide more money for public defenders for defendants who can't afford them. Owens, a lawyer, suggested that the state could face lawsuits if it fails to do so.

"Will you be willing to go to the governor and go to the Legislature and say we need more money for this?" Owens asked Beck.

"Yes, I can do that," Beck answered.

Beck isn’t a lawyer, but said from talking to lawyers he understands Kansas public defenders make far less than their private-sector counterparts.

Smith said he believes the indigents defense program suffers from a public perception problem. He said he fears the public thinks of defendants in criminal cases not as citizens who are innocent until proven guilty, but as "social undesirables."

"We need to get over that," Smith said. "We need to educate the public and educate the Legislature."

Smith said citizens and even legislators often don't know enough about the Constitution and the Bill of Rights to understand the importance of providing poor defendants not only with a lawyer, but with a competent one. A lawyer himself, Smith said he had seen an inordinate number of criminal cases end up at the appellate level when public defenders were involved.

Smith said it was his understanding the going rate for public defense work is $62 an hour. Owens said the average public defender salary is $46,000.

Owens wasn’t the only member of the six-person committee to express concern. Sen. Jean Schodorf, R-Wichita, said she believed the indigent defense program had been "underserved and underfunded" throughout her 12 years in the Legislature and warned Beck to gird himself for further cuts.

Sen. Jay Emler, R-McPherson, the committee chairman and a lawyer, said his colleagues' concerns about public defense are valid.

"When you look at current level of funding and the number of cases we have, it's problematic," Emler said.

Topeka native Dean Reynoldson joined Beck and Smith among the 17 state government appointees who were confirmed Wednesday.

Reynoldson was tapped to head the Kansas Department of Revenue's Alcoholic Beverage Control agency in June and was immediately tasked with implementing a raft of liquor law changes. He said that effort is ongoing.

"Given the large number of statutes amended, we're still in the process of updating industry handbooks," Reynoldson said. "We want to make it as easy as possible for licensees to comply with liquor laws. Education is a big part of that."